cool techno gadget - TakeTV (video file to USB to TV)

i just got one of these and i figured i'd point it out. i had been looking for something in this category for a while.

basically, you plug the 8GB usb drive into your computer, drop video files on it liek any usb drive, disconnect... walk to your TV... and plug it into the usb docking thingy. power-on via the remote and select the video from the onscreen list.

played my divx, xvid, and other videos i had. resolution was the typical 350M per 43 minute show, 720 pixel tall, video stream

http://www.take.tv/

http://www.cooltechzone.com/images/r...taketv_001.PNG

http://www.cooltechzone.com/Reviews/..._200710232938/

Sounds cool, will it play it in full screen despite the lower resolution?

my current TV is a standard NTSC box... and plays the stream fine. you can specify letterbox, 4:3 , 6:9, etc or 'to-fit'

the video looked like it normally does on my 21" monitor

i'll be upgrading my home TV sometime in 2008... was waiting for laserTV... no joy... oh well.

only downside is that is doesn't support HD content "at this time". that leads me to believe they can update the firmware to allow it to play whatever stream they wish. personally, i'd like to see it hand any usb drive being plugged in as well as being able to have new codecs uploaded from the usb drive.

sounds cool. my tv is right next to my comp lucky for me I can just use the S video port on my comp to do that :)

I just use a MVIX box.

http://www.mvixusa.com/store/

http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/732/mvixfz7.png

Had if for about 2 years now. Paid $139 for the box and then $99 for a 500gig harddrive to put in it. Mine plays up to 720P, but there are models made by MXVIX and other companies that will do 1080P as well.

The one I have can only play off the harddrive I installed, but they have ones that can also do eSata/usb so you can daisy chain other external harddrives to it to store more movies and trust me if you start putting HD content on there, 500gigs will go fast, forget HD on an 8gig memory stick lol, you'd need around 15gigs and up per movie (ok, maybe you can do it with 8gigs for some movies). Also they have the wireless stuff that can stream movies from your computer to your tv...wirelessly. I don't think there is much video formats you can throw at it that it won't play, but DVIX/avi works best from my experience and the newer ones probably do it even better. (mine is 2+ years old and the bios is just as old. Seems they stopped support on it, but it does what it's suppose to)

There are much better ones out there then the one I got here.

I have this http://www.linksys.co.uk/acatalog/Di...a_Players.html
the KISS DP-1600 HD.

I got it for Christmas and am very happy with it. It plays DVDs / CDs and can read video / audio/ picture files of CDR / DVDR

it has a USB port at the back that allows playing of media off usb keys / Drives and can stream from a locally hosted server or any KML sites on the internet.

WiFi connection is insufficient for streaming HD content though... looking at investing in Homeplug AV powerline equipment.